Choose the Best Accounting Software to Enhance Accuracy and Productivity

The best accounting software should come with a ready framework to help you focus only on your accounting strategies and get faster and accurate results.

Take for example, the task of allocating receipts and payments and tracking unrepresented lodgments. A standard procedure is susceptible to human errors and unnecessary time consumption as it involves multiple verifications and data entry at multiple stages. By using an accounting software that supports connection to your bank feeds you can automate a significant portion of your daily operations and eliminate errors.

Here’s how:

Allocating Receipts and Payments

Let’s suppose, you need to identify overdue invoices and payments. How about loading the bank statements to an accounting software and assigning customer/supplier names, product/service type and account codes against transactions from your existing data base? Let your system allocate invoices and payments, both entirely or partly based on the transaction value and the value owed, to customers and suppliers.

Separating Personal and Business Funds

This should not be a matter of concern if you are working with mid-size businesses or enterprises. However, it is a major complaint among accountants who are consulting for individual proprietors. Updating your accounting books regularly can alleviate the chances of such a mishap. You might also consider using a cloud-based accounting software from where you can send sign up invites to your clients to get access to their ledger and integrate their books with their bank account(s).

Simplifying Tasks by Onboarding your Clients on a Cloud-based Platform

Of all the online accounting software benefits, the biggest one we can think of is speed. By onboarding clients, you would not have to bear the brunt of last-minute clients owing to all-time access to client ledgers. Client data including revenues, accounts receivable and payable, tax liabilities, accruals, customer credits, bank statements, non-customer/non-supplier receipts and payments etc. can be managed and recorded daily. This means better streamlining of your responsibilities. Generating business reports weekly, for example, can provide you better insight while creating budgets. Compare this to months-long of accrued data and you are staring at a tangle of complexities.

There is, however, one drawback, which is dealing with customer queries regarding software use. Too many questions coming from the client’s end regarding software use could be irksome. But a solution with a user-friendly interface and round-the-clock support availability might solve this issue. Also, if you are into contractual work and have a handful of clients to deal with at a time, you are good to go.

Before looking for an answer to the question, “what accounting software do accountants use”, try to find out if what is available is the most capable. Factors that may pass the litmus test include:

• Easy navigation
• Training sessions including client training
• On location support team availability
• Cloud-compatibility
• 90% automation

Accounting Software non cloud-based vs Accounting Software cloud-based

Apart from the fact that an on-premises accounting solution involves hefty infrastructural cost, there are many operational limitations that it imposes such as:

Single window support, which bars you from opening the same transactional screen from multiple computers.

Integration with multiple web services is not possible with an on-premises accounting software. This means you cannot take advantage of CRM, Practice Management tools, software solutions supporting import of documents and such facilities, in a consolidated manner.

Manual data entry leads to accuracy issues due to an offline mode and lack of integration with third-party apps and other big platforms, thereby restricting automatic data flow.

Central or on-location support is often difficult to be obtained in the case of an on-premises software. This can result in slow response to downtime. On the other hand, handling accounts online on a remote server means all-time correspondence with the support team, ergo, reduced downtime.

Lack of data security is the biggest drawback of an on-premises device. Your data is not stored in a high-security data centre with manifold backup and recovery options unlike a SaaS/PaaS-based solution.

Conclusion

Choose an accounting software that allows you to automate the maximum of your task, dive deep into client data, thereby driving a more proactive relationship with your clients. It should encourage real-time analysis of data and thus push for efficiency.